Tuesday, July 03, 2018

Fun in the Mail!

I guess you could say I’m “Tying One On!” In a batik way, of course!My friend Scott Hansen of Blue Nickel Studios has a new fabric line out, Tie One On by Banyan Batiks and he asked me if I wanted to play with some scraps.Catch Scott’s story behind his fabric line on his website HERE.Did he even NEED to ask?! What a silly question!The small squishy envelope arrived yesterday – as I was handing off tubs and tubs of outgoing Quilter’s Date Keeper and Quilty Pencil Set packages to my postal person, she handed me this envelope and I ran inside with much anticipation.I LOVE batik fabrics – since returning from Bali a few years back after learning the painstaking artistry that goes into each and every one of a kind piece, I’ll never look at a batik without examining the pattern, and going through the process in my head – for instance:

(After ironing, I couldn’t want to dig in!)

The black piece with the red design at the far right?

The fabric was first died red. And then the wax stamping happened – by hand. And then the fabric is over-dyed black, and then boiled to remove the wax over the design area, so the red is now visible.

But see that pink with the grey at the far left? Cutting triangle pairs for my Jewel Box Stars Leader & Ender quilt:

This one, that I am pairing with gifted sloths from my friend Jamie?

The fabric was first dyed a mottled gray. And then wax stamped by hand. And then the gray from around the waxed design was bleached away, so the fabric could then be over-dyed with the pink you see as background. and THEN – the fabric was boiled to remove the wax and hung to dry as the print you see before you.

Batiking is an incredible process, and even more-so when you see a dark design on a lighter background because of the process of removing color, to dye again to change the color of the background.

It’s one thing to screen print a fabric by computer driven machines. It’s completely another to hand dye, and hand wax stamp, and boil away……and I think of all of the hands involved that “had a hand” in making these beautiful fabrics.

Thank you for understanding the many hours involved in just getting this project ready to go live, and the extra time it takes to make and edit and upload and link a PDF file so that you have a printer-friendly version.

I needed to spend yesterday getting as many orders out as I could until it was time to leave for Virginia, and writing the PDF yesterday would take away from people getting their orders in a timely manner – and yet – I didn’t want to delay on yesterday’s post presenting our new challenge to you, so I have kind of worked this in split shifts.

All cut and ready to Leader & Ender!

Yesterday – wow. It was a race to see where I would hit a dead end first – How many orders could be made ready before post office closing time at 4:30pm?

Would the next shipment of printer postage labels arrive via FedEx before I ran out of the roll that was in the printer?

Where would I be stopped in my tracks?

I ran out of printer labels at 2:30pm. No FedEx. (and they sometimes come up to 7pm) So I stopped right there, crammed everything in the van that needed to go – and dropped the remaining orders that were filled after postal pick-up at the post office and headed west to the mountains.

It was 96 degrees as I left Winston Salem. By the time I reached Jefferson, NC it was 83. A 13 degree drop in temperature! YES!

By the time I arrived in Virginia, a bit higher in elevation – temps were into the 70s. DOUBLE YES.

This girl was happy to see me!

Look at that tail!

(Okay, so Jason was teasing her with a treat…)

Family 4th Ahead!

Jason is moving to Portland, Oregon. He’s been planning it for sometime, and now is the right time. Oregon born, he says he is returning to his roots. I say -- he is going clear to the other coast and I am going to miss him tremendously. But kids do what kids gotta do and he needs to follow his own bliss.

This also means that I may be fostering his 2 cats until he gets settled in a place that is pet friendly. Because that’s what family does for family.

19 comments:

Bonnie, you've got legions of fans here in the Portland area to help your son if he ever needs it! We welcome him back home. :) Heck, we'll even invite him for home-cooked meals! Enjoy your quilty time until your next trip.

I agree - Portland is too far away!!!! My youngest lives about a mile away. That's just perfect!!!! The oldest is in Denver. Just too far from Momma for Momma. But her low humidity sounds pretty good in these days of sweltering heat and humidity in middle TN. At least texts and pictures to my phone make me feel a little better. Knowing she is happy as a pig in warm mud makes me feel a lot better. As Vince Gills Momma said, "I didn't want to raise rich kids, I wanted to raise happy kids!" Happy and content was always the only goal for me.

My children & grandchildren live in Portland, I live in Michigan, so I know the pain of separation. Still, we treasure our time together whenever it happens. Thanks for all you do for us, Bonnie, we really really appreciate it.

Happy 4th! I have one far away also......makes the time together even sweeter. I think the link to the PDF is not the correct one. It takes me to the store and the Date Keeper. not all bad, but I already ordered 3, lol! Enjoy your time.

Waiting by the Mailbox, lol. I think my postal person likes to hijack my mail sometimes. It got slower when everything started going to Spokane for sorting. Thanks for the update emails and a new Leader and Ender. My Granddaughters and I will be making hsts to go with our 4-patches now. Enjoy Jason's visit. And the visitor to the Inn. Lucky quilter!!

Exciting news for your son, but oh so hard to have them so far away. Thanks for the info on batiks. I knew the general info but not the more detailed. My oldest is always picking out batiks that she wants me to use. I use them with whatever I need that color for :) Enjoy your day and have a great holiday.

I have a son in central Oregon. Miss him but he says he will never come back to Texas...he loves it out there! I can’t blame him...it’s beautiful and cool...supposed to hit 104 degrees here today...112 with the heat index. I’m thinking Oregon sounds pretty good right about now.

Thanks to Skype and other ways to connect it is not nearly so hard as it was for me to have my pregnant daughter and 2 year old granddaughter move from Texas to Oregon. 27 years ago it was phone calls only and take picture and get them developed and mail them. I do think we had early e-mail.

Happy 4th Bonnie! FaceTime or Skype is Great for staying in contact! My son has Iived in Paris since 2000! We visit in person at least once a year but we talk once a week. It’s wonderful, this technology!

Hope you enjoy the 4th with Lisa and the rest of your family. I have a son that lives in California and he came home for the first time in a year several weeks ago. We enjoyed our time together. After 10 days at home -- and traveling to see friends and other family, he said that he was ready to go back to 'his life.' I understand him completely. Think of Jason's sojourn to Oregon as just a 'stop' on his journey -- he will be back. Hugs to you.

Happy 4th to you and your family! Wishing Jason a safe and wonderful adventure as he moves back home, I loved Oregon when ever we traveled there. Love all the updates on the QuiltVilla Inn, cant wait to see the post office face lift.

Happy July 4th from Canada. I hope (fingers crossed) that if you visit your son you will be teaching a course. :) Oregon is about 7 hours from me - and I would do it to take a class with you. Enjoy your days off.

Hey, Bonnie--I live in the country, about 45 minutes from Portland. Just chiming in to say that if Jason ever needs anything, please holler. That includes letting me know if he ever needs to come on out and hang out with a bunch of dogs, cats, chickens, miniature horses, and maybe a couple of goats. City life has its charms, but sometimes a guy wants to sit outside, pet a dog, and look at some big trees. :) He's welcome to come do that here, if he needs some space.